NMA Stats

Record Labels:

none

Started By:

Bryan Volz,Brent Erwin,Jon Broster

Based In:

Louisville

First show:

Primizee's Pizza - 6/12/97 w/ The Megalomaniacs, Inapt, and Valence.

Largest show:

500 people

Last show:

February, 1998 @ Primizee's Pizza.

Reunion show:

N/A

Number of Members:

6

A punky hardcore band with lots of old DC influences (and named after a Void song) that existed squarely within the Primizee's sub-section of the scene between 1996 and 1998. They were referred to as a"crusty Minor Threat" at one point, which made some members almost piss their pants with glee.

The band started when Bryan rented a bass from The Doo Wop shop. Within 3 weeks, Brent and Bryan had pressured/persuaded Jon to rent drums in the same fashion. Setting up shop in Bryan's parent's basement, they soon launched into a raucous cacophony of ... crap. Bryan couldn't play bass, much less write songs, Jon couldn't hold a beat, Brent couldn't sing to nothing, and .. there was no guitarist. It took a few months, but several songs were fleshed out (for example, "Be A Vegan" was fleshed out acapella in the St. Matthews mall parking lot during The Enkindel's show there in HMV). Jon's childhood friend Ben Parrot was asked to play guitar, even though he showed little interest. He came to a few practices, and then would disappear and not show up for a few.

Finally after close to a year (I think) of fucking around, making each other mad due to varying musical ability, and nonsense, the band managed to jump onto a show last-minute style at Primizee's. After bugging Bryan's mom to drop them off, they found that there were about 10-20 people there, and no other bands. It soon became apparent that either no one else would show up, or it was going to be a long time, so the band said "fuck it" and proceeded to... play. Several songs were not completed on the first try, but who cared? The few people that were there were at least clapping. The band jetted soon after their set, just as Valence and a gaggle of their friends from school (Manual - NMA was 3 Waggener students and 1 Ballard) finally showed up and gave everyone somewhat shitty looks.

Within weeks, the band had played another show and lost Ben as a guitarist. Practicing for a short while out of Jennifer Richard's basement (where The Vagrants were practicing at the time), they tried out Chris Newlove and Squire Greene (and probably some others). Squire was the only one to show any real interest after hearing the songs and trying to play them, so he was tapped. Several shows were performed with him, mostly at Primizee's, although one was a great show at Clifton Pizza w/ USR (Left Out), Charisma Society (who NMA probably played more with than anyone else), The Revenants, The Megalomaniacs, a Chitters-fronted Vagrants, and probably one or two more. the show was a benefit for Stephanie Clements' (Glen Megalomaniac's girlfriend at the time) dance team (haha!). But by the time Llamapalooza 1 had come around, Squier was missing from practices and not hanging out with anyone in the band much. The week before Llama, he wasn't even returning phone calls. Determined to still play, the guys called back Ben, who rejoined. Noone had really thought about kicking Squire out, they all assumed that he had quit, so everyone (including Squire) was pretty suprised when Squire showed up at Llamapalooza, walking over the levee, guitar in hand, ready to play. Too bad he showed up as NMA was in the midst of it's first song. Squire was pissed at all of the band, and the band didn't know what to do other than keep playing and say "You shoulda called us back" (or maybe it was "ssnniifff... smells like butterscotch, yo."). Ben departed again soon afterwards, and completely disappeared. For months afterward, the only thing anyone knew was that he had moved out of his parent's apartment in Jamestown on Breckinridge Lane, but rumors soon surfaced that he had moved "to the mountains with his new boyfriend" (of course, it was false). Left again without a guitarist, and with no faith in Squire, the band ended up asking Danny Vagrant to play a show or two with them, as NMA and the Vagrants were now sharing practice spaces (Bryan's place). the band was so happy hanging out w/ Danny more and playing with him that he instantly became a full member (rather than a fill-in), and several songs were reworked and new ones trotted out. While never "tight", the band's sound definitely got fuller and tigher almost overnight. There were still problems however, which led to the band's demise.

Due to Danny's role in The Vagrants, he didn't write songs, so it was left up to Bryan (who was admittedly horrible at it). He didn't like writing songs, but he liked writing lyrics even less. Throughout the band, Brent had stage fright even at practice, going as far as turning the PA down at every chance and only singing when he was alone in the laundry room. Bryan ended up writing bad lyrics on purpose (to a point) to try to push Brent to write some of his own, but it didn't work well... and on the drums front, Jon was becoming increasingly more frustrated with his abilites and the rest of the band (who continually gave him shit, in hindsight undeservedly - it was mostly Bryan). Practices were more frequently ending in frustration and trips to Taco Bell. When Bryan and Jon got into it at school (because Bryan was an overcritical asshole), the band was done.